Cian McLoughlin is the CEO of Trinity Perspectives and he's the author of the
book 'Rebirth of the Salesman'. What are the traits of the most successful
sellers that you see out there? Emotional intelligence or empathy, I mean the
two are sort of inextricably linked. People love to talk to someone else
that's interested in them. One of the other things you need to do, and you all
need to do this every single time you meet with a customer, is answer the
'So What' question. So you talk about something and if in their heads they're
thinking 'so what', then you haven't done the job of contextualizing what it is
that you're saying. And that's a really important point as well in terms of your
ability to stand up in front of one or more people and have a conversation, and
feel that you've got the credibility and the authority to do that.
Because if they can say something to you and then you can give them an answer,
which relates to not just your product but their business and their industry,
now they're ready to listen to you because now you're actually adding value
as distinct from just giving them something they could access over the web.
You know a solution is only a solution when we understand the problem, but we
often go in and say "can we talk about our solution" and they're like "should we talk
about our problem or do you want to go straight to your solution?" Which is crazy,
but as an industry again that's something we do. We move straight into
solution mode. We move straight into the how before we understand the why.